
INAUGURAL- SOUVENIR 
1909- 



£7< 

.X/3 



MAY 12 1326 







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WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 



rrxjllLLIAM HOWARD TAFT was born on 
\^m September is, 1857, the son of one of 

the leading public men of Ohio, Alphonso 

Taft, who had served in the Cabinet of Grant 
as Secretary of War, and afterwards as Min- 
ister to Vienna. The son graduated from Yale 
in 1878, studied for and was admitted to the bar, 
and began the practice of law in Cincinnati. 
He married Miss Helen Herron, and has three 
children. 

As was natural from his ancestry and sur- 
roundings Mr. Taft became actively interested 
in political affairs as soon as he was admitted 
to the bar; but his leaning toward, and taste 
for, the law were very strong, and he had no 
idea of following any other than a legal and 
judicial career. He served on the State bench 
of Ohio, and was appointed Solicitor General of 
the United States by President Harrison. In 
both positions he attracted the attention of all 
who were brought in contact with him, by his 
power of thought and of statement. As Solicitor 



view he established permits the prevention of 
that cruel practice which puts upon the most 
helpless the whole burden of injury received 
because of the risks inevitable in certain employ- 
ments. These two decisions meant much from 
the standpoint of the wise use of the National 
power, for they meant that the National power 
could be used on the one hand to secure just 
treatment for labor, and on the other hand to 
secure adequate control over the vast aggregates 
of corporate capital through which modern 
business is done. But Judge Taft was exactly 
as fearless in dealing with labor when it went 
wrong as in controlling capital when it needed 
control. When the country was convulsed from 
one end to the other with riot and violence, 
when every time-serving politician was bending 
like a reed before the blast of agitation, Judge 
Taft, as fearless physically as morally, upheld 
order and repressed the violence of mobs, by 
the wise and proper use he made of the great 
power of injunction. 

After the Spanish War President McKinley 
appointed Mr. Taft Governor of the Philippines. 
The annals of colonial administration of all 
nations can be searched in vain to find any man 
who did better a more difficult and important 
work than that which it became Mr. Taft's duty 
to do during the next four years. His inde- 



fatigable industry, his broad sympathy, his 
energy, his fearlessness, his generosity, and his 
ability to see and do justice, combined to render 
him able to perform a service such as no other 
man could have performed. He showed not one 
particle of sentimental sympathy with wrong- 
doers ; he did not hesitate to sanction the use 
of force whenever it was needed ; and yet he 
made it evident that his purpose was to do 
credit to the United States by administering the 
Philippine Islands in the interest of the Filipinos 
themselves. They have since repeatedly shown 
their intense devotion to him ; and it has been 
well warranted, for no people in their condition 
have ever had a stauncher, wiser or more effi- 
cient friend. He looked out for the material 
well-being of the Islanders, and he also started 
them on the difficult path of self-government, 
arranging the conditions so that the young 
generation had the chance to go to school, and 
the older men the chance actually to try to 
govern themselves, first in their local bodies and 
finally in a legislative assembly. 

Then Mr. Taft was made Secretary of War. 
From the beginning he showed himself not 
merely the efficient head of his Department, 
not merely a Cabinet Minister of the first class, 
but a statesman of far-reaching initiative and 
foresight. In addition to the regular work 



connected with the army he kept oversight 

of the entire Philippine situation, and super- . 

intended in person all that was done in 

connection with the giant task of building the 

Panama canal. When the revolution occurred 

in Cuba he at once went to the Island, 

and by the measures he took secured the 

tranquil and peaceful development of Cuba 

during the intervening years ; and by the peace 

which he thus secured he made certain the 

withdrawal of the American troops, and thereby 

gave Cuba the chance once more to start upon 

a career of independence. Meanwhile, there 

was no great policy in which the American 

people were concerned, at home or abroad, 

which he did not study and with which he has 

not since identified himself. No man of better 

training, no man of more dauntless courage, of 

sounder common sense, and of higher and finer 

character, has ever come to the Presidency than 

William Howard Taft. 



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5 




JAMES SCHOOLCRAFT SHERMAN 



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ON. JAMES SCHOOLCRAFT SHERMAN, 
of Utica, New York, was born in Utica, 
October 24, 1855, receiving the usual 
American schooling, and graduating from Hamil- 
ton College in 1878; he was admitted to the 
practice of the law in 1880, and in 1884 elected 
mayor of the city of Utica. He was a member 
of the Fiftieth Congress, and from that time, with 
the exception of two years, has been in contin- 
uous service of his home district in congress. 
In addition, he has found the time to engage 
successfully in several business enterprises, and 
to carry on an important law practice. This 
has not prevented tireless industry in his con- 
gressional work. He has not only served his 
immediate constituency with fidelity and success, 
but has with rare ability, contributed to the 
formation and enactment of the great general 
measures which have absorbed the public atten- 
tion for the last twenty years. 

He is an interesting and attractive man; a 
born friend-maker. Dignified without austerity; 



amiable without effusiveness; modest without 
diffidence; aggressive without pugnacity; effect- 
ive without display; he moves forward in his 
work industriously, without fuss or friction, 
with a thoroughness and rapidity which have 
made him for many years one of the most use- 
ful and influential members of the house of 
representatives. He is a ready and forceful 
debater, a clear and convincing speaker. He is 
far and away the best parliamentarian in 
congress, and a presiding officer of the very 
first rank. 

All of his associates on both sides of the 
House are his friends. After twenty years of 
almost continuous service in congress, it is a 
very significant tribute to a man to be able 
truthfully to say that he has no enemies on 
either side of the House. 

Mr. Sherman would rather do a favor than 
ask one, yet no man is more appreciative of a 
kindness, nor slower to forget one. His even 
temper, his genuine unselfishness, his aggressive 
desire to assist others who may need assistance, 
his human sympathy which manifests itself in 
his every expression and attitude, his radiant 
and ready smile, his unfailing courtesy and 
complete self-mastery, give him a most winning 
personality. He says "yes" with finality, and 
"no" with reluctance. Even while refusing a 



request he conciliates, and in conferring a favor 
succeeds in conveying the impression that he has 
actually received one. 

He is as brave as he is genuine, and as firm 
as he is kind. He is an earnest and clever 
student of men and an excellent judge of char- 
acter. He is ready with a jest, a pleasant word, 
a cordial handshake, or a friendly inquiry, but 
is slow to wrath, slow to criticism, slow to 
rebuke; but with it all, on all matters of prin- 
ciple, he is as firm as a rock and absolutely 
J uncompromising. His convictions are clear-cut 

and staunch, and while he is not given to 
obtruding them offensively, he is always ready 
to defend. For twenty years he has been almost 
continuously in the searchlight and under the 
microscope of public inspection. His life and 
his character constitute an open book, every 
page of which is clean, wholesome, inviting and 
inspiring. He has a straightforward, steady gaze, 
quite in harmony with his straightforward 
methods. 

He believes in party, and particularly in his 
own party. He believes in party government 
and the desirability of party responsibility, as 
over against individual responsibility. 

He has faith, firm as the hills, in the superi- 
ority of the representative form of government. 
This ever has been and ever must be founded 



because it is established and tried. He is 
always ready to put to the trial of the test-tube 
and the hammer, any accepted, as well as 
any proposed, condition. 

Perhaps the whole character of the Vice- 
President may be summed up in the sentence : 
"He is one of the best types of high-minded, 
representative Christian American gentlemen, 
who has made good underworking conditions." 
He has been tried and found not wanting. 
He is not a dreamer, nor a poser, nor a 
noisy advocate of impossible and undesirable 
extremes, but one of our best American 
citizens, one of that class who have been 
busy doing things for the improvement of 
existing conditions, who have been devoting 
their lives and abilities to converting the ideals 
of yesterday into the realities of to-day, and 
who have been moving forward and onward 
and upward in a safe and sane way and 
making the United States a great and growing 
nation, where opportunities for each are 
more and better than anywhere else in the 
world. In temperament and training, in ability 
and in experience, he is fully equipped and 
qualified to fulfil the duties of his position. 





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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 982 419 2 




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